In October, the business that we have been operating on Amazon for the past 7 years was healthy.

But for the holiday season Amazon gave itself the Buybox on our private label product, which we have never provided directly to Amazon or ANY other seller, or vendor, ever. (We are a very small business making a modest living selling our own products through FBA.) And now Amazon is selling thousands of counterfeit units (“sold by and shipped from Amazon.com”) of our top product while our sales have dropped to virtually zero.

Over the years, we have stayed afloat in spite of copycat products, cheap Chinese sellers undercutting our business, competitors who literally copied and pasted our product descriptions, etc.

We never imagined that the greatest threat to our business would be Amazon.com itself hijacking our manufactured products.

For the first time ever, having lost out on the multi-deca-thousand holiday revenues we can usually expect, we will end the year in debt, with negative net revenues, unable to meet obligations on our current manufacturing orders, and very, very likely (though we will try hard to prevent this) we are probably going to have to go out of business.

So how did this happen?

We opened a seller case when we first noticed Amazon had the Buybox, and Amazon did not respond to that case for over a MONTH. Instead, once a week they sent a message saying they were reviewing the case (they weren’t) and would respond within 3-7 days.

I wasn’t too concerned initially, because the Amazon warehouse had mis-received as many as 375 units over the previous months. I assumed they had simply located those units and were selling them off.

But as the holiday season began in earnest, and our sales were zero, I realized that, no, there was actually a real problem here.

Finally after a series of phone calls, today Amazon confirmed a terrible possibility that we had never even considered: Amazon had procured a large number of units (how many they won’t say) from one of their vendors (which vendor they won’t say) and are actually selling counterfeit units of our private label product.

I confirmed with the factory that makes these for us that they have never made this exact configuration of dice for any other customer, and that providing our product with our label on it to anyone other than us is something that has never happened, and could never happen. They have procedures in place that make this impossible. And if it wasn’t impossible, they would still never do this!

So the big question is, does Amazon know they are selling counterfeit units?

They have a record of the fact that it was OUR business account that created that product listing, uploaded photographs, typed in the product description. They can see that it has been our business account that has been the sole seller of this product for years. That when new photographs got added, it was us who added them, us who updated the product description. They know that the name of our business is High City Books, that when they pay into our bank account, they’re paying High City Books. They know that we created every product under the High City Books brand. They know we’re the only seller of those products. They know our website is highcitybooks.com. They know our email address is highcitybooks@popularemailservice.com.

So when Amazon says in their counterfeit policy “It is each seller’s responsibility to source and sell only authentic products” it’s weird that they clearly made NO effort to source this product from us, the company they know created this product and was until now the only seller of it. They made NO effort to check with us to see if the products they were purchasing from their mystery vendor were authentic.

And when we opened a case and tried to communicate with them, they seemingly made every effort to stall and frustrate our attempts to find out more information.

This case was open for weeks and weeks. And I see no reason why they couldn’t have informed us “Yes, we are selling these on purpose, no, these are not lost units. We purchased these from vendor XYZ who says they sourced them from you. Is that not the case?” After, at MOST, a couple of days.

Had they done so, perhaps we could have cleared this up quickly. In time for us to still have had a successful holiday season, end the year in the black, and able to meet our current manufacturing obligations.

Keep in mind, for 7 years we have followed literally every rule that Amazon has. We have glowing reviews from customers. We’re green in every metric. We have a stellar reputation among the community we serve. This business was a dream. It really was a dream.

I would say “Don’t let this happen to you,” but if Amazon.com wants to hijack your product, sell counterfeit units, and ignore your communications while your business falls apart suddenly, with no forewarning and for no reason you could have predicted, I really don’t see what you can do to stop it.

Any ideas, please let me know. Especially regarding what kind of documentation Amazon would accept as proof that we have never authorized anyone else to sell this product.

We’ll do whatever we can.

The timing of this taking place in November/December is really devastating though. If we can get Amazon to stop selling the counterfeit units tomorrow I’m still not sure we will recover. We may not.

Thanks for lending an ear, guys and gals. Best wishes to all of you. I’m rooting for all of you and I hope you have better luck.

I did a test buy, but the unit received was one of ours, not one of Amazon’s. Apparently they’re commingled. (We commingle because, as the sole seller, why not? It makes things more convenient… until now)

I don’t necessarily feel like I can afford to keep ordering more and more until I happen to get one of Amazon’s units. And the thought of enriching them at my own expense by buying units of my own product while Amazon profits is a rage-inducing prospect right now.

So the answer is: I actually don’t know what Amazon’s units look like. I imagine probably a lot like ours, probably with a copied label.

> I did a test buy, but the unit received was one of ours, not one of Amazon’s. Apparently they’re commingled. *(We commingle because, as the sole seller, why not? It makes things more convenient… until now))

Because when someone else comes along and sends their counterfeit look-alike crap product into FBA under your ASIN listing, it’ll end up getting commingled with +your+ inventory. That’s why not. In this case it happened to be Amazon themselves doing the deed. Also as you found out it makes doing a test buy more difficult.

By enabling commingling you’ve saved a few bucks, but in the process you’ve lost control of your FBA inventory, and now have no idea what Amazon holds in stock as “yours”.

Amazon sent in fake inventory for one of our branded private label listings that is registered as well. Many customers eventually complained, Amazon pulled my inventory and theirs from the site to inspect. 3 days later, my offer was the only one active.

However, the unfortunate part is Amazon commingled all of their fraudulent inventory with ours, so now we are getting customers returning counterfeit units under our accounts orders that were put into our inventory…SMH

I’m pretty sure a foreign seller applied to sell our product via Vendor Central and got approved to sell fake product. I’ve seen them do the same thing to many other competitor listings in my niche.

Easy to blame Amazon for this, but a few questions are open for discussion:

To begin, +none+ of your items are showing packaging, with your brand +or+ any distinctive branding on the dice.
If none if your products can be distinguished, at the very least, with distinctive packaging, showing your brand name and company information, it is nothing more than a generic product.

Is your brand a registered trademark, with USPTO?

If the brand is trademarked, did you register with Amazon Brand Registry?
If the answer is no, you really do not have a leg to stand on, since you failed to protect your brand.

If you didn’t register the product with Amazons Brand Registry, are NOT the manufacturer of the product and DO NOT have a trademark on the brand name you have ZERO protection from things like this. People think that just “Private Labeling” something on amazon means they have a “Brand” and affords them the protections that a trademarked brand affords them. Not true at all. Did you have a custom manufactured package the product was shipped to you in with a GS1 registered bar-code visible? If so it would have been wise to show that in your primary listing picture.

I do sympathize with you I could post an ASIN on more than one counterfeit products Amazon has obtained and is FBAing the heck out of right now…

Counterfeit means it violates intellectual property rights. Dice are almost always generic and there is nothing in your description that mentions anything unique that could be protected.

You’re selling a generic product, how could you not have predicted that if they sold well Amazon would source them themselves?

I do find it odd that they didn’t make a new page for the dice they purchased but the only likely outcome you’re going to get is them doing that. If you can’t undercut them on price you’re still not going to recover the volume you had.

First, you must understand that Amazon is in bed with the Chinese. Estimates indicate that half of all the sellers on Amazon are from China. And since the Chinese must use FBA, Amazon makes money from storing/shipping Chinese made goods. So when Amazon evaluates the sales of products, if it is something they can knockoff and make a few bucks they most certainly will. Unless you hold a patent, there is little you can do. However, if they are selling under your name and/or using your name to promote these knockoffs then you may have grounds to go after them. If they are using your UPC, the same applies as no other company has the right to present their products as if they came from you. But chances are there is little you can do. Your product is not the first Amazon legally knocked off and gave the buy box to and won’t be the last. Amazon has perfected the knockoff model. What most sellers do in your situation is abandon the listing or sell in other marketplaces because there is no way you will be able to compete with Amazon when they control the buy box, have superior purchasing power and can warehouse/ship their own goods for far less than what they charge FBA sellers. And of course, Amazon always labels their own products with labels such as “Amazon’s Choice,” etc.

For the seller sending in high-quality, exact product, the risk is that someone will send in inferior product and the good seller gets dinged when their order gets fulfilled with junk.

for the seller sending in junk, there is only upside when their buyers get the good stuff.

there is even the potential to “wash” inventory by shipping crap in, not selling anything and recalling @$.50/ piece with the probability of getting good stuff back. The bad actor wins and the inventory pool at the FC is polluted.

Commingling is, in theory, a cool program. In reality, it is a program steeped in risk.

Even if Amazon has the right to fabricate and sell a generic look-alike product in its marketplace, it cannot legally do so under your brand name. To do so flatly misrepresents the origin of the product and is therefore a textbook example of “passing off,” a breed of unfair competition proscribed by both federal and state law. It may also constitute a misappropriation of your protected trademark. Finally, the listing of a look-alike product on a product page dedicated to a particular brand is a flagrant violation of Amazon’s own policies which are, I would argue, an implied term of its contract with third-party sellers.

You state that this has nearly driven you out of business. May I ask why you have not commenced an arbitration to settle the matter once and for all? Chances are better than even that a formal arbitration demand directed to Amazon’s legal counsel would get you a favorable result in about as much time as it would take for the postman to deliver the letter.

High City Books, I hate to break it too you but ALL 4 of your listing are subject to this. I would assume that this scenario is going to happen to ALL of your listings. You need packaging with your “brand name” and UPC codes visible on all your your listings. Looking at your listings, I’m quite frankly surprised this didn’t happen to you sooner with all of the shenanigans going on with amazon these days.

I dont see any branding on any of your items. So the issue cannot be trademark infringement. Based on what i see in your listings, trademark infrigement is off the table as a claim. That only leaves either a design patent infringement or a utility patent infringement. If you have one of those, then present that to Amazon.

If your manufacturer has one of those patents and you have an exclusive contract with them to make these, present that to Amazon.

Be aware, patents are no longer “first to invent”. They are now “first to file”. There are some protections afforded to “first to invent” but they are very weak and very expensive to protect. Most complaints to the TTAB mean you are going to have to pony up $100,000 to a lawyer to retain them.

In the end, i would bet anything that your manufacturer is now an Amazon Vendor and is supplying them because they get more wholesaling to Amazon. Thats usually what happens.

Counterfeit… If the “patentability” of this item is deemed not to pass muster, then anybody can make them. You never Branded the product. Even the Title, bullet points and description are generic.

Too bad you never packaged them in a branded container. You could have had a nice printed carton to hold them for about 20 cents, but it appears you ship them an a clear ziplock bag.

One other thing, Recommended age 8 Months and up? Yikes, these are a choking hazard for sure. Even the Ziplock bag is a choking hazard. Are there any warnings on the bags? I dont see any warnings on the detail page.

After seeing the actual listing, I’m going to modify my previous comment by stating that it strikes me as somewhat ambiguous whether this product page describes a particular brand or a generic product. Without more, it’s hard for me to see any attempt on the seller’s part to brand this set of dice by making it distinguishable from other similar products or, for that matter, to create a listing for a particular brand as opposed to a generic item. Sellers who simply slap their company name on a listing for an item that’s being mass produced for sale to anyone and everyone really are pressing the boundaries of what reasonably could be considered “branding.”